Where the Files End (aka the Beginning of the End)

You would think that once we pull the last of our regional reads from the file drawers, we would be done.  Sadly, that simply is not the case.  While our hands, fingers, and wrists all appreciate the break from writing we do not seamlessly move straight into Committee deliberations.  Instead, there are a few short days in between point A (file reading completion) and point B (Committee deliberations).  These few days are the mad rush known as cutting.

Cutting is essentially when we prepare our regions for Committee deliberations.  Cutting begins with pulling all regions’ files (well, actually only those files which do not yet have a final decision), putting them in a particular order, reviewing them to get a better picture of what decisions remain to be made in our region, preparing paperwork for our fellow Committee members, compiling mid-year grade reports, and then paring down our region.  We go through this process twice; once for our in-state region and once for our out-of-state region.  This process only takes a few days not because it isn’t labor intensive (and believe me it is) but because we have only a short time before we must enter Committee (either to present our own region or to be Committee members for our colleagues’ regions).  I spent more than half of yesterday simply pulling files from drawers, alphabetizing them, adding to them various pieces of information that had been sent to me over the past several months, and sorting through mid-year grade reports.  I will spend the next several days reviewing all of my in-state files multiple times (that have not already received a final decision), determining which ones need to be presented to Committee, and also beginning to cull a group of waitlisted applicants.

Cutting is a time when you get up from your desk more times in one day than you can possibly imagine.  Whether I’m going back to the file drawers because I didn’t pull every file, going downstairs to pull mid-year grade reports, or moving back and forth between my computer and my crates of files, it requires clothing that can move and comfortable shoes (no joke — I do not wear skirts or dresses during cutting…the risk of tearing panty hose or being unable to squat, sit on the floor, or move easily is too great and takes away precious time).

So it’s the beginning of the end and also the end of the beginning.  Reading is ending, Committee is beginning.  It’s the end of four months of intensive reading and the beginning of an even more intense month of Committee deliberations.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but only briefly and only if I look really hard.

– Wendy Livingston